Non-cooperative power control for large-scale antenna systems

Abstract

A base station servicing a cell of a cellular network provides power control of a cell independent of any other cell in the network. For downlink power control, the base station transmits information at its full power and applies a downlink power control factor to each downlink channel to equalize downlink throughputs of the mobile terminals in the cell. For uplink power control, the base station transmits instructions to have the uplink channel with the worst channel condition to transmit at its full power and the other uplink channels to transmit at that same full power. Each transmission is scaled by a corresponding uplink power control factor such that uplink throughputs for the mobile terminals in the cell are equalized. The base station applies an approximation of a rigorous capacity lower bound algorithm using propagation channel conditions and channel parameters to calculate the uplink and downlink power control factors.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention generally relates to power control in communication networks using Large Scale Antenna Systems and in particular to a base station of a cellular network performing power control.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]A key issue in the proper operation of a cellular communication network is the use of an efficient method for controlling the allocation of power to uplink and downlink channels of a cell being serviced by a base station. Power control, and more particularly, the amount of power allocated to each downlink and uplink transmission by the base station of a cell ultimately goes to the throughput desired by each such channel. Mobile terminals physically located in a cell being serviced by a base station typically require sufficient power to maintain a particular throughput to transmit and / or receive information. Ideally, service providers who own and / or control the cellular networks want to provide uniformly relatively high through...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention provides a method for controlling power allocation in a cellular communication network using a large scale antenna system. This non-cooperative method allows each base station to calculate a power control factor for each downlink channel based on an approximation of a rigorous capacity lower bound algorithm, and to transmit information to mobile terminals at full power without cooperation from any other base station. The power control factor ensures that each downlink channel has a scaled value of the full power transmission, and that uplink channels have relatively equal throughputs with each other. The technical effects of this invention include improved network performance and efficient use of network resources.

Problems solved by technology

A key issue in the proper operation of a cellular communication network is the use of an efficient method for controlling the allocation of power to uplink and downlink channels of a cell being serviced by a base station.

In a cellular communication network with mobile terminals, the dynamics of mobiles terminals entering and exiting cells and the intrinsic uneven mobile terminal distribution in any given geographic area can result in large differences in the number of mobile terminals served by each cell.

It does not make sense to equalize mobile terminal throughput between a crowded cell and a cell with few mobile terminals.

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